We have the Divine Right to Participate in God’s Life, Nature, Being, Image, and Glory

As believers in Christ, we experience God’s organic salvation, and we go up level by level until we become beings in the New Jerusalem; as God-men, we have the divine right to participate in what God is so that we may be made the same as Christ.

The vision that God has shown us these days is the completed vision of God’s eternal economy consummating in the New Jerusalem.

There are many aspects of God’s organic salvation and His judicial redemption, and all of these we can see being consummated in the New Jerusalem.

The New Jerusalem is the embodiment of God’s complete salvation with its judicial aspect and its organic aspect.

The foundation of God’s throne is His righteousness; because God is righteous, His kingdom will never end.

Based on His righteousness, we as sinners are to die for our sins, but praise the Lord, Jesus Christ came to die in our stead, and we now can be righteous before God in Him!

When we believe into the Lord Jesus, Christ becomes our righteousness, and we are accepted by God in Christ; when God looks at us, He sees us in Christ, He sees us as righteous ones!

The foundations of the New Jerusalem in many colors have the appearance of a rainbow, which is a type of God’s faithfulness in keeping His word.

When we believe into the Lord and confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Amen!

The base of the New Jerusalem is righteousness – Christ as God’s righteousness is the base.

Based on the righteousness of God, based on the judicial redemption that Christ has accomplished for us on the cross, we can participate in what God is as life.

The New Jerusalem is full of wonderful features and characteristics, all of which can be applied to our experience today. We need to live out and work out the New Jerusalem, realizing that we are a little New Jerusalem in our experience today in the church life.

When we enjoy Christ as the tree of life, drink of the Spirit as the river of water of life, flow Him out to others and walk according to the divine nature in us, we experience the New Jerusalem.

When we trust in the faithfulness of God in keeping His word, enthrone Him in the center of our being, and open to receive the river of living water flowing out from the throne, we enjoy and experience the New Jerusalem. Hallelujah!

The entire New Jerusalem is a matter of life built on the foundation of righteousness. We can now enjoy God as life in His organic salvation based on His righteousness, the judicial redemption.

As God-men, we have the Divine Right to Participate in God’s Life, Nature, Being, Image, and Glory

We need to realize that we should do only one work for the Lord, which is to make God’s chosen people regenerated ones, sanctified ones, renewed ones, transformed ones, conformed ones, and glorified ones.

This is what God is doing in His organic salvation, and we need to cooperate with the Lord to be regenerated, sanctified, renewed, transformed, conformed, and glorified; furthermore, we need to help others go through this process.

The consummation of this process is the New Jerusalem; in the New Jerusalem, all the people will be this kind of people who passed through this process.

Today we are going up level by level until we reach the highest point, where we become the same as Christ in life and nature but not in the Godhead.

When we reach such a point, there will no longer be any flesh, natural man, or the self; everyone will be in spirit, and we will all be beings of the New Jerusalem.

So we need to do the work of the New Jerusalem, daily experiencing God’s organic salvation and going up level by level until we become beings in the New Jerusalem (Rom. 5:10, 17, 21; 8:10, 6, 11; Rev. 22:1-2; cf. Jer. 18:15; Micah 5:2).

Both in our experience and in shepherding others, we need to go through this process, participating in what God is to us, and enjoying what He has done, is doing, and will do in us and through us.

As God-men, we are children of God in the process of becoming the same as Christ in life and nature; God has given us certain things, certain aspects of Himself, in which we can participate in order to be deified for the fulfilment of His economy.

God is almighty, all-powerful, all-knowing, omnipotent, omnipresent, all-sufficient, time-transcending, and eternal, and He has certain attributes that we as human beings can never participate in.

However, according to the New Testament, there are certain attributes of God in which we can participate, that is, we can partake of for our enjoyment.

He has initiated the organic salvation, and in such a salvation He not only works on us and around us, but He has given us certain aspects of Himself in which we can participate. Hallelujah!

It is good to know what we as God-men have in order to participate in them; it is good to pray these verses to the Lord and allow Him to bring us into the experiences we need so that we may go up level by level in God’s organic salvation until we become beings in the New Jerusalem.

We have the Divine Right to Participate in God’s Life to be Regenerated and become God’s Species for God’s Sonship

As God-men, the first thing we can participate in is God’s life; we have the divine right to participate in the life of God.

John 1:12-13 tells us that all those who receive Christ by believing into Him have the right to be children of God; this brings us into the participation of God’s life.

We are regenerated by participating in God’s life to become God’s children, part of the species of God, for God’s sonship (see Rev. 21:7; 22:14).

John 3:15 tells us that everyone who believes into the Lord Jesus has eternal life; by believing into Jesus Christ, we have the life of God and we participate in this life. Hallelujah!

We have the divine right to participate in the life of God for God’s sonship; we are children of God, sons of God, and we enjoy and partake of the life of God.

This is not only in an initial way when we received Christ as Savior but also in our daily experience; we can daily experience Christ as our life, we can set our mind on our spirit to allow the divine life to spread into our soul (Rom. 8:6), and the divine life will saturate and swallow up our mortal body to make us beings of life.

Through regeneration, we have entered into a process of daily receiving the dispensing of the divine life of God until we become beings full of life.

And for eternity in the New Jerusalem, we will enjoy and depend on the divine life, for we will eat the fresh new fruits of the tree of life, drink of the river of water of life, and enjoy the shining of the light of life.

We are called to and we have the divine right to participate in the life of God!

And when receive, enjoy, and partake of this divine life, we become children of God for God’s sonship, and we will enjoy God for eternity as life! Hallelujah!

Thank You, Lord, for regenerating us with Your divine life to make us children of God, partakers of the divine life. Hallelujah, we are regenerated by participating in God’s life to become God’s species, God’s children, for God’s sonship! Amen, Lord, keep us enjoying You as life, partaking of You as life, and growing in life! We open to You to partake of Your life for our enjoyment, growth in life, and become children of God who enjoy God as life!

We have the Divine Right to Participate in God’s Nature to be Sanctified and become as Holy as the Holy City

As God-men, we have the divine right to participate in God’s nature; God’s nature is holy, for holiness is the very nature of God.

Eph. 1:4 tells us that God chose us in Christ to make us holy; the particular purpose of God in choosing us is to make us holy as He is holy.

To be made holy is not only to be separated unto God but also to be made different, distinct, from everything that is common.

To participate in God’s nature is for us to be sanctified to become as holy as the holy city. God is sanctifying our whole being to preserve us complete at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thes. 5:23).

Today we are in the process of being sanctified, that is, we’re in the process of partaking of God’s holiness to be separated unto Him and saturated with Him.

The only way we can become the holy city is by participating in God’s holy nature.

So Christ is sanctifying the church, cleansing her by the washing of the water in the word, so that He may present her to Himself holy and without blemish.

The more we contact the Lord, the more we are sanctified; the more we spend time with Him in His word and prayer, the more we partake of His holy nature.

The more we meet with the holy saints, the more we are being sanctified. For us as God’s chosen ones, to be holy is to partake of God’s divine nature, which is holy (2 Pet. 1:4).

Thank the Lord that we have the divine right to participate in God’s nature to be sanctified and become as holy as the holy city, New Jerusalem!

Lord, we exercise our divine right to participate in God’s holy nature to be sanctified and become as holy as the holy city! Sanctify us, Lord, by saturating us with Your holy element. We set ourselves aside unto You to be separated and distinct from everything common. We open our whole being to Your sanctification. May we be sanctified by participating in God’s nature to become as holy as the holy city! Amen!

We have the Divine Right to Participate in God’s Mind to be Renewed and become as New as the New Jerusalem

As believers in Christ, we are God-men with the divine right to participate in God’s mind to be renewed in our mind and become as new as the New Jerusalem. Wow!

We have become God-men through regeneration, and we have the right to participate in the mind of God.

We need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind (Eph. 4:23) and God is daily working in our environment and within us to renew us day by day (2 Cor. 4:16).

Even though our spirit is new and full of life, our mind needs to be renewed; we have the divine right to be renewed in our mind by participating in God’s mind to become as new as the New Jerusalem.

As we are daily cooperating with the Lord to dive into the truth, be washed by the water of the living word of God, and be constituted with the divine truths in the Bible, our mind (the leading part of our soul) is becoming new, even new as the New Jerusalem.

We today can have a foretaste of the New Jerusalem as we are being renewed in our mind; may we not be fashioned according to this age but be transformed by the renewing of our mind (Rom. 12:2).

Though we are human, we can have a divine mind; we can be renewed in our mind to have the mind of Christ.

Paul told us in Phil. 2:5 that we should let this mind be in us, which was also in Christ Jesus. May we let the mind of Christ become our mind.

May we put ourselves under the hearing of faith so that our mind would be infused with the mind of Christ, and may we let the mind of Christ become our mind.

Lord Jesus, we open our mind to You: renew us in our mind and make us as new as the New Jerusalem! We exercise our divine right to participate in the mind of God so that we may be renewed in the spirit of our mind. Oh Lord, our mind! We want to let the mind of Christ be in us so that we may think the same way that He thinks. May we have not an unrenewed and vain mind but a divine mind, a renewed mind, even the mind of Christ! Renew us, Lord, day by day, until we become as new as the New Jerusalem!

We have the Divine Right to Participate in God’s Being to be Transformed into Precious Materials for the New Jerusalem

In 2 Cor. 3:18 we are told that we can participate in God’s being to be transformed into the Lord’s image from glory to glory even as from the Lord Spirit.

After being regenerated, there is a work of transformation going on – we are being transformed not just by something of the Lord Spirit but by the Lord Spirit Himself.

God’s very being is infused into us as we behold Him face to face, and we are transformed into the same image to be the same as He is. Wow!

We need to exercise our divine right to participate in the being of God to be transformed into precious materials.

When we behold the Lord face to face and allow Him to infuse Himself into us, we are constituted with the Triune God as gold, silver (pearl) and precious stones (1 Cor. 3:12; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 12:2; Rev. 21:18-21).

The transforming Spirit is with our spirit, operating in us to transform us into the image of Christ from glory to glory.

The more we open to the Lord, behold Him in prayer, and spend time face to face with Him, the more we are transformed into His image, and the more we’re constituted with the divine nature of the Father (signified by gold), the redemption of Christ (signified by silver or pearls), to be precious materials for the building up of the church (signified by the precious stones).

In this process of transformation, we are metabolically changed from being natural into being like God; we are daily undergoing this metabolic process in our Christian life, and we have the right to participate in God’s being.

Lord Jesus, we exercise our divine right to participate in God’s being so that we may be transformed in our being. Amen, Lord, constitute us with Yourself. Transform us by the renewing of the mind so that we may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and well-pleasing and perfect. We open to the transforming Spirit with our spirit so that we may be transformed from pieces of clay into precious stones to be built into the New Jerusalem! Amen, Lord, constitute us with Your very being until we become intrinsic parts of the New Jerusalem for Your corporate expression!

We have the Divine Right to Participate in the Image of God to be Conformed to His image and have the Appearance of the New Jerusalem

Wow, we have the divine right to participate in the image of God so that we may be conformed to His image and have the appearance of the New Jerusalem!

According to 2 Cor. 3:18 and Rom. 8:28-29, we believers in Christ are conformed to the image of Christ to be made the same as Him in His image. Hallelujah!

We are being transformed into the same image – we are conformed to His image to be the same as He is in His image.

God wants to have many sons that are conformed to the image of His firstborn Son; He is delighted in His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, and He sent Him to be multiplied and reproduced in many believers who are being conformed to the same image!

In God’s creation, we were made in the image of God and according to His likeness; however, through the fall we have lost God’s image and likeness, and we became fallen.

Praise the Lord, through God’s organic salvation we are being transformed into the same image as Christ from glory to glory!

For us to be transformed into the same image as Christ is for us to be conformed to the image of the resurrected and glorified Christ so that we may be made the same as He is!

The maturing Spirit is working in our spirit day by day to conform us; He is working in us to cause us to grow in life unto maturity, and we are daily becoming more and more like Him.

The more we enjoy the Lord, the more we open to Him, the more we are conformed to the image of Christ, the firstborn Son of God.

Our destiny is to be conformed to the image of Christ and become the same as He is in His image.

If we read Rev. 21:11 we will see that the New Jerusalem has the appearance of jasper, and in Rev. 4:3 the One who is on the throne has the appearance of jasper.

We will have the same appearance as God as we participate in the image of God to be made the same as He is for His corporate expression. Hallelujah!

Lord Jesus, we open to Your inner work to conform us to the image of Christ, the firstborn Son of God. Take us day by day, little by little, until we grow unto maturity to be fully conformed to the image of Christ! We open to Your inner work of conformation. We exercise our divine right to participate in the image of God so that we be conformed to the same image as Christ and have the appearance of the New Jerusalem, expressing God in His image for eternity! Amen, Lord, grow in us unto maturity and conform us to Your glorious image!

We have the Divine Right to Participate in God’s Glory to be Glorified and be Completely Permeated with the Glory of the New Jerusalem

Heb. 2:10 tells us that God is leading many sons into glory; Christ cut the way into glory, He is the Pioneer, and He is leading us as the many sons of God into glory.

The reason that the Lord is transforming us and conforming us to His image is so that we may all be brought into His glory, that is, to express Him in His glorious image.

We have the divine right to participate in God’s glory so that we may be glorified and be completely permeated with the glory of God to become the glorious city, New Jerusalem.

Being glorified is our right; Rom. 8:30 clearly tells us that He has predestinated us to justify us and glorify us! Amen!

Glorification is the last step in God’s complete salvation in which God will completely saturate our body with the glory of His life and nature.

He is working in us, we cooperate with Him, and the consummation of this process is our being glorified!

The divine life we have received by regeneration is growing in us, increasing in us, and transforming us until our spirit is full of life, our soul is saturated with life, and even our body will be saturated with the glory of God’s life and nature.

As the consummation of God’s organic salvation, God will transfigure the body of our humiliation and conform it to the body of His glory – we will look like Him in full, having a glorious body like the Son of God (Phil. 3:21). Hallelujah!

The Spirit who works in us is the sealing Spirit, who has sealed us unto the day of our redemption, that is, the day when our body will be redeemed, glorified (Eph. 4:30).

The result is that we will become a glorious city, the New Jerusalem, which has the glory of God!

Lord Jesus, keep us in the process of God’s organic salvation until we are glorified in our body to be fully permeated with the divine glory! Wow, what a glorious destiny we have: we can participate in God’s glory to express God in His glory as the New Jerusalem! Hallelujah, we have been predestinated, called, and justified, and we are in the process of being glorified! Oh, how we yearn for that day, the day of the redemption of our body, so that we together may express God in His glory as the New Jerusalem!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “Incarnation, Inclusion, and Intensification,” pp. 214-217, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Vital Factors for the Lord’s Recovery of the Church Life (2021 ITERO), week 2, The Factor of Closely Following the Completed Vision of the Age through the Ministry of the Age.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Christ is the hope of glory, He is God’s mystery, / He shares with me God’s fulness and brings God into me. / He comes to make me blended with God in every way, / That I may share His glory with Him for aye. (Hymns #949)
  – Lord, transform us to Thine image / In emotion, mind, and will; / Saturate us with Thy Spirit, / All our being wholly fill. (Hymns #750)
  – God will bring us into glory, / We will then be glorified; / Fully saturated with Him, / We’ll be wholly sanctified. (Hymns #970)